"For hundreds of thousands of years the stew in the pot has
brewed hatred and resentment that isdifficult to
stop. If you wish to know why there are disasters of armies and weapons in theworld, listen to the piteous cries from the slaughter house at midnight."
Ancient Chinese verse

When planning an event where food is to be served, offer
everyone a choice: meat or a vegetarian/vegan alternative. Sounds so
considerate, no pushing, offends no one, so politically correct. Or is it?
Because what is really being offered is: Death and Violence. The choice: "Will
you have the violent dish or the nonviolent dish?" That is, "Will you have the
body of a dead animal, which once was a sentient being, very much like yourself,
but now brutally killed to please your palate, killed by an industry using
mostly indigent, low-paid workers, an industry which desensitizes its workers by
the bloody work and injures them at an alarming rate, an industry which causes
much pollution and devastation to the earth itself and, an industry which keeps
the animals before their violent death, in unspeakably cruel conditions" or,
"Will you condemn all that and take the sometimes less popular, but much
healthier, vegetarian alternative, thereby honoring a commitment to
nonviolence?"

’Thou shalt not kill’ does not apply to murder of one’s own
kind only, but to all living beings; and this Commandment was inscribed in the
human breast long before it was proclaimed from Sinai." Count Leo Tolstoy

To offer one type of food, just animal free food, at a food
event obviously, is simpler than having to concern oneself about two types of
food. This is especially true when there is no worry about all the problems meat
can cause such as easy spoilage and contamination. True, then there is no
choice, but who is going to demand meat? Who is going to say, "I must have meat
at the particular time when this meal is served or I will be harmed"? The
vegetarian food can be delicious. It should be very tasty. No one even will
notice the absence of meat. It’s a "no brainer". The arrangement is easy. No
need for such choice.

"Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances for
survival of life on earth as much as the evolution to a

vegetarian diet." Albert Einstein

To be committed to nonviolent food does not require taking on
another cause. No extra energy need be expended. It is not a matter of taking on
something else (in what may be an already very involved lifestyle); rather, it
is a matter a getting rid of something that is contrary to one’s integrity and
contradictory to one’s commitment to nonviolence. It will simplify and unify
one’s life. How one lives one’s daily life, especially in the life-supportive
act of eating, is central, not peripheral, to one’s lifestyle. To stop
participating in the killing of animals, in the violent system that provides
meat and to stop exploiting sentient beings in any way, only requires a change
in lifestyle. It could be a spiritual decision. Not to do so is to work
against the calling for a peaceful earth and justice for animals because
truly, "Non-Violence Begins With the Fork.".

.

"There is not an animal on the earth, nor a flying creature on two wings, but
they are people like unto you." Qur’an

"For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, …
As one dieth so dieth the other. Yet they have all one breath. So that a man
hath no pre-eminence over a beast". Ecclesiastes 3:19

It is not, "people or animals"; it is, "people and animals".
It is not, "either-or"; it is, "both-and". There need be no conflict in one’s
priorities nor one’s commitments. To eat or serve meat, it must be emphasized,
is to work against the animal cause. Just as there can be no peace without
justice so there can be no peace without compassion for every living thing
because the human heart can abide neither injustice nor cruelty.

"The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of
great compassion." The Buddha (circa 563-483 B.C.)

"Until he extends the circle of his compassion to all living
things, man will not himself find peace." Albert Schweitzer

The really Politically Correct "choice" might be from among a variety of
delicious vegetarian foods.